Assistance program
Habitat Conservation
$1.5 Billion committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Commerce, Department of
- Assistance
- Project Grants
- CFDA number
- 11.463
- What it does
- To provide grants and cooperative agreements for habitat conservation activities including coastal and marine habitat restoration and protection. Projects are funded to carry out public policy pertaining to protection and restoration of the Nation's wetlands, rivers, and other coastal habitats (including Great Lakes habitats), pursuant to the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act, Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act as reauthorized in 2006; Endangered Species Act; Marine Mammal Protection Act; Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA); Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA); Inflation Reduction Act; Oil Pollution Act; Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA); Clean Water Act; Resources and Ecosystems Sustainability, Tourist Opportunities, and Revived Economies of the Gulf Coast States Act (RESTORE Act); and other legislation. Outcomes of most grants and cooperative agreements are tracked as habitat acres restored or stream miles opened to fish passage. Other goals may vary, as stated in published Notices of Funding Opportunity (NOFOs).
- Who benefits
- This program benefits Federal, State, and interstate marine resource conservation and management agencies; U.S. Territories and Freely Associated States; U.S. and foreign commercial and recreational fishing industries; conservation organizations, academic institutions; international and Indian Tribal treaties; private and public research groups; consumers; and the general public, as stated in the NOFO.
- Who applies
- Eligible applicants for assistance include State and local governments, including their universities and colleges; U.S. territorial agencies; federally and State-recognized Indian Tribal governments; private universities and colleges; private profit and nonprofit research and conservation organizations, and/or individuals, as stated in the NOFO.
- Authorized by
- National Marine Sanctuaries Act
- Marine Mammal Protection Act
- Department of Commerce Appropriation Act of 1999
- Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act of 2006
- Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships
- Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act
- Endangered Species Act
- IIJA
Committed by fiscal year
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
Top recipients
By dollars committed.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
Most programs pay out one way — a grant, or a direct payment to individuals; the flow bar only appears when a program genuinely mixes types.
- Some recipients aren't itemized
For entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government reports one aggregate instead of naming tens of millions of people, so the recipient roster isn't part of the public record.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments